Your comments on the additional group of 198 Rohingya people from Myanmar found off the Indonesian coast in Aceh and who should be responsible for helping them.

I think the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) should be responsible for the fate of the people and it should effect the resettlement of the 400 Rohingyas stranded in Aceh.

Before the UNHCR resettle the people permanently elsewhere, the organization may apply to the Indonesian government to request the provision of the Galang Island as a temporary refugee camp, while awaiting confirmation from countries ready to accommodate them.

Indonesia has a good track record in handling refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia.

Abdul Rahim

Tangerang, Banten

Everyone is responsible for helping them. We share this earth, air and sky. So why can't we just share our love? Those who reject helping them, have already lost their love.

Nova

Binjai, Medan

The Rohingya people are the responsibility of all civilized countries.

E Nurdin

Jakarta

We are all citizens and we should help and sympathize with the Rohingya people, because they are our brothers and sisters.

Robert

Cikrang, West Java

Please consider this. We had to help our brothers and sisters who were earthquake victims. Last year about 20 people died because of Rp 20,000 (US$1.8). This year Malaysia will return 100,000 migrant workers causing Indonesia to lose about US$ 30 billion in remittances.

The Rohingyas do not speak Indonesian. What will they do? Rely on government aid? I am sorry to say that we have plenty of street children and beggars already. So the Indonesian government should either discuss the matter with the Myanmarese government so they will guarantee their safety and they have to be sent back to Myanmar, or hold talks with the UNHCR on the issue.

Maybe there are richer countries that will accept them: the US, the EU or Japan.

Arief Koesnaedi

Yogyakarta.

The Rohingyas of Myanmar have been persecuted by their own government for decades, just because they are Muslims. Indonesia, being the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, should show some solidarity with these Rohingyas, precisely because they are fellow Muslims. Even if Indonesia does not want to harbor them permanently, we, with the help of the UNHCR, could at least offer them temporary refuge until they can be settled in a third country.

If countries like Sweden or Norway, with hardly any Muslims among the population, are willing to take in Muslim refugees (even if it was for political rather than religious reasons), why wouldn't Indonesia? Or is Indonesia afraid of upsetting the government of Myanmar, a fellow ASEAN member?

V.T. Hopkins

Jakarta

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